Interested in Being a Financial Analyst

[jameswift]

I'd like to share a story with everyone. It's my story of being in Finance.

I feel really bad for a lot of students these days. Everyone wants to go into finance because there is this unwritten rule that it's paved with gold at some point.

I've spent the last 15 years in finance. I was a bank teller at 17 and that was my ticket into retail banking (which at the time I didn't know that is was called that). My parents always said get a good education and get a good job. My Dad knew the CEO of a local credit union and he got me the awesome job of being a bank teller. Talking about having the hook up. I was paid $13.25 per hour.

I was told that even with a degree, my sights would have to be set on getting insurance and investment licenced. So I took my CSC and my LLQP while going to school. I was a mutual fund rep after a few years. I was making $18.50 an hour plus about $1200 per quarter if I was 110% of target.

Then I wanted to get into financial planning because that was where the money was. So I took my CFP and my CLU. I became a financial planner at 23. I had a base salary of $55,000 and I could make up to $5000 per quarter if I knocked the numbers out of the park. The largest bonus I ever recieved was $3000

I hated it. All we sold was wrap account A B and C. It's a sales job. Some people sell pots and pans, I was selling investments mortgages and insurance. I remember selling so much garbage investments to people and I just felt like crap every day. I wanted out. I was pissed off that I did all this school and worked so hard to make the "average" adult income.

Why didn't I get into engineering or accounting or something else? How the fuck did this happen to me?

I would show up to work because I had to, but I was unhappy. Then someone told me that I could make a lot of money if I worked for the mutual fund companies directly selling/wholesaling to investment advisors. So I went and started on the quest to take on this kind of job. I thought maybe I might like that better and at that point. Anything was better then what I was doing.

At 25, I got a job as a wholesaler. I was given a base salary of $110,000 and bonuses were uncapped. My first bonus, and I remember this like it was yesterday, was about $25,000 after taxes. I was happy because of the money I was making but the money only made me happy for about 6 months.

Yes, the pay was good, but I was working 7 days a week, I was stressed out all the time worried about if I was going to make my numbers for the quarter and I was always in fear of losing my job. If you had 2 quarters where you didn't meet your numbers you were out the door. The boss who had hired me and liked me, was fired and was replaced with a woman who hated me with a passion. She would yell and scream at me at least 3 times a week over the phone. I swore I would quit but then my $3200 bi-weekly payroll would come in and I'd just swallow my pride.

I got married during this time because I felt I could afford to put my girlfriend through med school. Deep down, I wanted to marry her so she could become a doctor and then I could quit being in this hell of a world I put myself in.

I had a mortgage, a car, school bills that blew my mind, and fear every day that I could lose my job. I was stressed out all the time and it took a massive toll on my relationship. Out of fear, I wanted to keep educated in case I lost my job. I wanted to be employable with a good job in case we had 2 bad quarters and I could no longer support my family.

I learned a lot. I learned about all the insurance MGAs the brokers, the planners, the family practices. I understood the 'REAL' investment world. I realized that finance is so vast and big and that there are so many ways to run with this. I ended up taking my CFA to keep myself in the game. If I lost my job I wanted to make sure I could support myself somehow.

Through networking, I managed to get a job offer for a trust company in Toronto which had ties in NYC as well as Vancouver. I learned a lot. I learned about how institutional investments are made, how the macro level of the stock market works and had an overall view from above on how it all fits together. My job here was $120k but only one bonus per year if the company had 90% of target. My bonus was $0

It was disgusting. The world of finance is really filled with mountains of bullshit and the CFA taught me nothing more then that anyone can make anything look anyway they want it to look. It's a game of cat and mouse. It's a game of trying to figure out what's real and what's not. It's all lies and truth.

I had the chance to work for the same company's division in NYC and figured I should take it since it's potentially good money and it was the goal of many people who get into finance. Work on Wall Street.

I did it. I was there. I felt like I was king of the world.... for about a day.

I worked as a broker and that job was by far the worst job ever. I wouldn't wish that job on my worst enemy. I worked 18 hour days 6 and sometimes 7 days a week and when I wasn't I work, I was networking or trying to study for my CFA L3.

Most of the people had a overnight bag at the desk to shave and bruth their teeth. The drug use was unreal in the office to cope with the stress. You had to act like your penis was bigger then Moby Dick and it was all just a bunch of lies.

The CFA wasn't going to help me. I was a kid that graduated from SFU with a CFA and there were people that had their MBA from Harvard and Wharton with families that were well connected and had their last names on buildings.

It was not about the paperwork, it was about the connections and the ability to perform. My days as a broker lasted 8 long months. I was away from my wife for weeks at a time and while she appreciated my efforts, it destroyed our relationship. My best month in NYC was $30,000 my worst was $0. It was hell and I wanted to go home. I eventually got a job with BOC/NBC for $80,000 and a bonus of $10,000 a year.

Working in New York made me realize that everything everyone had told me and shown me in my life was nothing but smoke and mirrors. I would go to bed crying most nights. I was diagnosed with severe depression. My wife was living in Vancouver and I was working my ass off to put her through school. That was the only thing that kept me going at that point. I didn't want to let her or my dad down.

I decided to get into trading from the advice of some people I worked with in NYC.

I made a lot of money doing it but I ended up getting fired from my job because I would skip work to trade. Even though I had made money trading, after the job loss, I lost my confidence. My wife ended up leaving me and I fell into severe depression.

All the money I made was lost, I was broken emotionally and financially. I tried to commit suicide twice and was hospitalized with severe depression.

So I end up taking my MBA because I don't want to do finance anymore but I will admit I enjoy people, sales, and business. I started my own Financial Planning firm in Vancouver and it didn't really work out too well. I just didn't have the modivation to sell financial products. We had some crazy idea and did some business but I guess I didn't have the passion for it.

So now I'm in my 30's. Unemployed, divorced, I've been applying for jobs for the last 2 months and I can't get hired (finance sector on the higher end jobs is in cutback mode not hiring mode).

Thing is, I don't want a job in finance. I want to do anything but that. I'd rather take a job as a sales manager for office supplies. I'd rather be a firefighter.

It sucks too because I got used to making $200k in my 20's and now I have to face the reality that I might only make $75,000 in my 30's.

Anyway, I'm not trying to say don't get into finance. This is just one person's experience from the ground up.

[cliffhanger33]

I'm just a first year student at Queen's school of business, but I will be joining a boutique investment bank as a summer investment banking analyst for this coming summer in TO, hoping to land a global ibanking summer internship by 2nd or third year

I'd love to talk more about this and discuss career building towards a financial analyst

[.foxtrot.]

@jameswift I had to come back hours later after reading your post. This kind of account really sheds light on the finance industry. Stories like these you never here, you only hear about the hedge fund manager making 50 million or your cousins friend making 150K + working for a investment bank.

It really puts perspective on what Ive been doing in school these past few years and if transferring out of engineering was a mistake.

On a side note could you talk about how you got into trading? Good, the Bad and would you ever do it again?